Ian Mahinmi essentially hit rock bottom during the 2016-17 season with a knee and calf injury that cost him the majority of the year so there was almost no way that he could do much worse over the past season. The veteran center had a fairly average season with a few handfuls of head scratching miscues that were underscored by his four-year, $64 million contract. Mahinmi was never a game changer during the season, which one might expect from such a hefty deal.

Season Takeaways

At times, albeit rarely, Mahinmi looked competent of about half of his contract’s worth. In Game 2 of the playoffs against Toronto, he had 12 points on 4-for-4 shooting in 15 minutes where he was +11 when on the floor in a game Washington ended up losing by 11. After being benched with a DNP-Coach’s Decision in Miami, Mahinmi responded with seven strong games in March where he averaged 9 points and 6 rebounds in 17.6 minutes per game.

A concerning part of Mahinmi’s game is that he can be the cause of more negative plays than positive when he is on the floor with his high rate of personal fouls and turnovers. Extrapolating his numbers to 36 minutes, Mahinmi averaged 7.2 fouls and 3.1 turnovers. He fouls so much that he would be disqualified from games after 30 minutes on average. Ironically enough, Washington was 14-3 in games where Mahinmi recorded five or more fouls this season. His poor hands also make it difficult to run offense into the paint because his man typically helps off and bets on Mahinmi fumbling any drop off passes.

Because of an offseason procedure, the French big admits that he was not feeling fully healthy with his legs under him until before the All-Star break. That would coincide with when he had 17 points on 7-for-8 shooting and eight rebounds against Orlando on January 12th, which was the first time in the season he had more than five field goals in a game. Although he will be 32 early next season, if he can stay healthy, then he can at least be a net neutral on the court.

Grade: C+

With the uncertainty of Marcin Gortat’s future in D.C. and Mahinmi’s nearly unmovable remaining two-year, $31.4 million contract, the latter may be in line for a bigger role should the former get moved and a big not be added through the upcoming NBA draft. That would not be great for the Wizards’ starting lineup, especially offensively, but may be a byproduct of their poor foresight during the summer 2016 offseason.